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Sawyer's 2013 Glog - Last Harvest/First Sauce

I haven't done a grow log before, but thought I'd give it a try this year. I'm growing mostly super hots, so I feel like I'm already behind schedule. Anyone know where January went? No pictures yet, I'll add some later when things (hopefully) start popping.

My setup is a basic home-made 2-tier 1" PVC plant stand. Each tier can accommodate 4 standard 1020 nursery flats and has three 2-bulb T-12 4' 40W fluorescent shop lights suspended above. The bulbs are a mix of Daylight, Wide Spectrum, and Power Twist. (I can't give you a K rating on these off the top of my head.) I use heater mats to try to keep the flats in the comfort zone for germination. They are wired to a dimmer switch so I can adjust the current. Even with the dimmer switch, in the past I've had trouble keeping uniform temperature, so this year I've put a layer of aluminum foil on top of the mats to spread out the heat and a layer of kraft paper on top of that. The flats go directly on the kraft paper. If anyone has any tips or tricks for controlling the temperature of heater mats (without purchasing an expensive thermostat), I'd love to hear about it.

I use standard 1020 nursery trays with 1206 (72-cell) inserts. I filled the inserts to planting depth with Sushine Mix #1 and planted anywhere from 2 (new) to 4 (old) seeds per cell. I then topped off the trays with some peat-based germination mix. I intended to use Fafard 3b germination mix, but didn't want to open a new bag for only four flats. I had a small bag of Miracle Grow and one of Ferry Morse left over from days past so I used one of those, I forget which.

The germination stand is in a back room in the warmest part of the house. As plants geminate and become established they'll be moved, either in whole flats, or potted out separately, to a 3-tier, 5 flat/tier stand in front of a bright picture window on the south side of the house. No lights on that yet and may not need them since the window gets direct sun for several hours per day. I'll be starting a lot of other seeds besides hot peppers, so I can't just leave them on the heater mats 'til plant out.

I started four flats today, one whole flat of self-propagated, pure-strain red Bhut Jolokia and up to 12 cells each of the following (note - I prefer the term 7 Pot to 7pod, but am keeping the 7pod nomenclature here out of deference to the vendor):

(First parenthesis is # of plants from first planting on 2/11, second is # plants/# soaked on 3/4)

Red Bhut Jolokia (my own isolated) (75)
Yellow Bhut Jolokia (PL) (0)
Brown Bhut Jolokia (PL) (1)
White Bhut Jolokia (PL) (8), (15/20)
Yellow Fatalii (RFC) (11), (6/10)
Giant White Habanero (RFC) (7)
Trinidad Scorpion Moruga/Moruga Blend (PL) (10), (28/35)
Trinidad Scorpion Moruga/Moruga Blend (RFC) (14)
T. Scorpion Moruga/Moruga Blend Yellow (PL) (6), (19/25)
T. 7pod Congo SR Gigantic (PL) (9), (2/7)
T. 7pod Large Red (PL) (4)
T. 7pod Large Yellow (PL) (1)
T. 7pod Brain Strain (PL) (10), (2/9)
T. 7pod Brain Strain Yellow (PL) (4), (11/12)
T. 7pod Brown (PL) (17)
T. 7pod Burgundy (PL) (8)
T. Douglah (PL) (5), (4/20)
T. Scorpion Butch T. (PL) (7)
T. Scorpion Yellow (PL) (18)
T. Scorpion Original Strain (PL) (1)
T. Seasoning (PL) (4)

New strains/sources started on 3/4:
Red Bhut Jolokia (PL) (45/50)
Scotch Bonnet Brown (PL) (22/34)
'12 7 Pot Yellow (RFC) (0/11)
'12 Bhut Jolokia Chocolate (PL) (0/14)
Datil (PL) (7/22)
Bhut Jolokia Orange (PL) (15/20)
T. Scorpion CARDI (PL) (7/20)
Tobago Treasure (PL) (8/20)

Started on 3/6:
Red Bhut Jolokia (own isolated) (>50)
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion (CPI) (13)
NuMex Pinata (CPI) (40)
White Bullet Hab (PL) (13)

Unrecorded plant date:
Orange Hab (PL) (2)
TS Cardi (PL) (7)
Dorset Naga (PL) (5)

Started on 3/25:
Yellow Bhut Jolokia (PL) - 8/?
Long Choco Habanero (AjiJoe) - 17/42
Pimenta da Neyde (PL) - 14/30
Giant Mexican Rocoto (PL) - 0/40
CAP 1144 (PL) - 0/21
(old) Yellow Habanero (Trade Winds) - 0/24
(old) Jamaican Red Mushroom (RFC) - 0/18
Trinidad Congo Red (PL) - 10/12
Datil (PL) - 9/22 (4 hh)
7 Pot Primo (PL) - 5/18
Early Jalapeno (PL) - 19/36
Cracked Jalapeno (PL) - 33/36
Large Hot Cherry (PL) - 33/36
Surprise Hot Mix (AjiJoe) - 97/144

Edit 4/3: add sources PL=pepperlover, RFC=Refining Fire Chiles, CPI=Chile Pepper Institute
Edit 4/3: (in blue)
Edit 4/29: Edit title (again)
 
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Well, I'd rather have the snow than a killing frost. All the peppers are inside wondering where that warm, sunny weather went. I think the fruit will get through this just fine.
 
I'm sorry for the snow pal, but glad you didn't have a killing frost, now if Ma Nature who's either partying too hard, or gone senile, would just figure out it's spring damnit!

Hopefully we won't just bust into the hot weather...
 
WalkGood said:
Dam I accidentally hit “like this” I hope your snow goes away and it warms up for your peppers & nons …
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It was, at least, interesting.
annie57 said:
Arksawjuan, that snow pic was . . . made me grateful . . . not enjoying by any damn stretch your pain, glad the babies are asleep under down comforters snuggled up to by Sofia Vergara and Cote de Pablo (for protection purposes only ;) ) while you're gone. Just in case you missed this version on "NCIS":

See, I pay for help keeping your plants warm while you're gone. :party:
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I did see that episode. Cote is one of my favorites.
KiNGDeNNiZ said:
SNOW SUCKS.. here its 92 and sunday 69 with RAIN... thanks to global warming
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Sixty-nine would be a heat wave here right now. Good weather returns on Monday, though.
JJJessee said:
ruh-roh!
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Lol.
Devv said:
I'm sorry for the snow pal, but glad you didn't have a killing frost, now if Ma Nature who's either partying too hard, or gone senile, would just figure out it's spring damnit!

Hopefully we won't just bust into the hot weather...
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Could be senility, she is 4.5 billion years old, after all (the Gaian version anyway). On the other hand, that's fairly young as far as these things go, so maybe it's just a party.
stickman said:
:)
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Yeah, I guess maybe a May snow is not so rare for you New Englanders, but it was all they talked about on local news yesterday. Everybody was freaking out, even though the roads remained clear.
meatfreak said:
That's just plain crazy, snow in May :shame: Hopefully the weather will soon turn around for you!
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It's been said before, but surely this was winter's last gasp.
 
Thanks, everyone, for commiserating with me on the weather. They were saying the snow was the first recorded in May, but now they're saying it's the first in a generation. In any case, it was unusual.

It started turning nice yesterday and today is in the mid-70s with sunny/partly-sunny skies. I've lost ground on the hardening off, but will be back on track soon. Work is keeping me very busy, so I'm falling behind on mowing, cane-slashing, gardening, potting, planting, etc. And far behind on everyone's glogs. I skimmed some and am disappointed I can't keep up. Come the end of May, I'll just have to jump in again and hope I didn't miss too much, because I'll never be able to go back and read everything I missed.

The Jigsaw seeds I got from DesertChris and planted on 4/28 haven't popped yet, but the red, orange, and yellow Manzano from Trade Winds Fruit that I planted in the same flat on the same day are coming up. :woohoo:
 
Oh, yeah. I posted over in the Jigsaw thread, but forgot to put it here. Meet my first Jigsaw:
2m6vkih.jpg
 
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